


these troubled days of cruel rejection, you come to me, soothe my troubled mind

by spinner_of_yarns



Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Insecure Crowley (Good Omens), Other, Snake Crowley (Good Omens)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:40:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27441316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spinner_of_yarns/pseuds/spinner_of_yarns
Summary: Aziraphale loves snakes and hasn’t yet noticed that humans don’t share his love.This results in the occasional misunderstanding.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 120





	these troubled days of cruel rejection, you come to me, soothe my troubled mind

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was partially inspired by [this post](https://gayforgoodomens.tumblr.com/post/189643093359/a-concept-aziraphale-has-an-absolutely-euphoric)
> 
> Title is from heaven for everyone by queen, cause when in doubt use a queen lyric as the title. I’ll try to post the podfic soon. It’s already recorded, I just have to edit it.  
> Edit: podfic posted now!

Aziraphale liked snakes. He liked all of the Almighty’s creatures, great and small, but there was something special about snakes. In turn, snakes liked Aziraphale. Animals in general tended to like him, with some notable exceptions.* But it was like snakes could sense his love for them and often slithered over, requesting a cuddle. **

*Geese. Aziraphale sincerely doubted geese liked anybody.

**Including, occasionally, a lovely black serpent with a red belly. It couldn’t be the same snake, because they came in different sizes over the years, but Aziraphale has never met a red bellied snake who didn’t cuddle up to him. Except the first serpent, of course, but Crowley was different. He was a demon.Demons didn’t cuddle.

Humans didn’t tend to like snakes as much. Aziraphale hasn’t caught on to that yet. He was aware that some humans didn’t like snakes, that sometimes they were even afraid of them, but he thought the general public was in favor. This resulted in the occasional misunderstanding.

*

Crowley was used to being disliked. His fellow angels didn’t like him before his fall and after, neither did the demons. *** Humans were better, but they were getting less and less trusting with every generation. So he hid his eyes behind sunglasses and hid his heart behind walls.

*** Well, they did. Some of them, anyway. But usually for things he didn’t have anything to do with.

He was just hoping Aziraphale would be different.

He was different, at first. Aziraphale was nice enough, for an angel. But then he started acting more like the humans. He would call Crowley a snake and a foul serpent, the way the humans said it, and Crowley didn’t want to admit it, but it hurt. It hurt to have his best, and to be honest, only friend so openly profess his disdain of him. They weren’t supposed to like each other, but Crowley thought they did. He thought there was more to their relationship than just bussiness. But Aziraphale didn’t seem to agree.

Crowley didn’t feel ashamed, exactly, to be a snake, but he wasn’t proud of it either. He did his best to avoid showing Aziraphale his serpentine side. He reigned in the hissing and didn’t shapeshift in front of him. He did, on occasion, seek him out as a snake, but he made sure Aziraphale wouldn’t recognize him. He was kind, and never hesitated to offer comfort to an animal. Crowley felt guilty for deceiving him. He’d never hug a fallen angel.

*

They were hanging around a marketplace. Crowley was sowing mischief and Aziraphale was chatting with the merchants, picking out fruit and pastries. He was gossiping with the lady selling pies and Crowley was trying not to feel left out. Why did Aziraphale ask him to come along if he was just going to ignore him?

“And how is your beloved, my dear?”

The merchant scoffed. “She’s a fucking snake.”

“I’m glad it’s going well between the two of you.” He smiled.

”That’s not funny,” the merchant said with a scowl.

Aziraphale looked at Crowley in confusion as if requesting help. Crowley rolled his eyes. “Pardon my friend,” he said. “His latin’s a bit rusty.”

The merchant kept frowning, but accepted the apology, along with the pie order.

Later, when Aziraphale was done shopping and Crowley was done with mischief,**** Aziraphale turned to him. “What was that about? Is there some new slang I missed?”

**** For now.

New? Was this a joke? He’s been calling Crowley a snake for centuries. “Are you taking the piss, angel?”

“No! Of course not. I feel awful for offending poor Claudia. I really don’t understand what happened. Was she being sarcastic? I do have trouble catching that sometimes.”

Crowley sighed. “Angel. She called her a snake.”

“Yes.” Aziraphale nodded, still waiting for an explanation.

“That means she’s a lying, evil backstabber.”

Aziraphale’s eyes widened. “What? But snakes are so lovely!”

Crowley blinked. He didn’t do that very often. He was a snake, after all. And apparently Aziraphale thought he was lovely. Crowley’s brain was stuck on a loop of all the times Aziraphale called him a snake or a foul serpent, finally recognizing the tone as fondness. “People don’t like snakes,” Crowley kept explaining, going on autopilot. “Might be my fault, partially. The whole apple bussiness and all.”

“They can’t still be hung up on that! It’s been ages.”

“Yeah, well.” Finaly, Crowley’s brain finished rebooting and he decided escape was his best shot. “Anyway, I have some bussiness I have to attend to. Completly slipped my mind. Temptations, you know how it goes. Or you don’t actually, but I guess blessings are similar enough.”

“Oh. Of course. Mind how you go.”

*

Aziraphale sat on a hill overlooking the town. Sun was setting and the view was beautiful. He was hoping to show Crowley. Only, he ran off, using a temptation as an excuse. No, not an excuse. A lie. He never lied to Aziraphale.

Aziraphale didn’t want to think about what that meant. He especially didn’t want to think about how he was unknowingly calling Crowley awful things for centuries.

As he sat there, watching the sun set, a snake slithered up to him. Somehow, despite being a snake, it looked bashful. “Hello there!” Aziraphale said. It was a red bellied snake.

“You know,” he said conspiratorially, as the snake slithered onto his lap. “I have a friend that looks like you.”

The snake looked up at him, like he was startled by something, and hissed a little. Aziraphale narrowed his eyes.

“Well, I hope we’re still friends. I’m afraid I may have offended him.”

The snake froze and then nuzzled Aziraphale’s tummy. Aziraphale petted the pretty scales on his head. “Crowley?”

Crowley drew back, his eyes flicking around in guilt. “Sssory,” he hissed. “I’ll go.”

“You’ll do no such thing, you silly serpent.” Aziraphale caught Crowley before he could leave, put him back on his lap and started stroking his scales. Crowley pushed into the touch, letting out a pleased hiss.

They sat there together in silence, enjoying each other’s company, until Crowley spoke again. “You ssssaid…you sssaid ssnakessss are lovely.”

“I did.”

“But I’m a sssnake.”

Aziraphale smiled. “I’m aware of that, dear.”

“Oh,” Crowley said and hid his snout in the folds of Aziraphale’s toga. Aziraphale was sure that if snakes could blush, Crowley’s face would be as red as his underbelly.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [these troubled days of cruel rejection, you come to me, soothe my troubled mind [podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27632134) by [spinner_of_yarns](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spinner_of_yarns/pseuds/spinner_of_yarns)




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